The financial news that actually matters
If you are one of the roughly 8 million federal student loan borrowers still enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan, the clock is ticking. The U.S. Department of Education announced that loan servicers will begin sending transition notices on July 1, 2026, giving each borrower 90 days from the date of their individual notice to…
On May 19, 2026, the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond closed at a yield of 5.19%, according to the Treasury Department’s daily par yield curve. That is the highest closing level since 2007, before the financial crisis rewired the global economy and ushered in more than a decade of historically low interest rates. And a majority…
A taxpayer who owed $10,000 on April 15 and filed an extension without sending a check has already racked up roughly $200 in IRS penalties and interest as of late June 2026. By October 15, that figure will climb to approximately $650, and on a $25,000 balance, the damage tops $1,600. The extended filing deadline…
A Medicare beneficiary filling a specialty cancer prescription that costs $15,000 a year will, at some point in 2026, walk up to the pharmacy counter and owe nothing. Not a reduced copay. Not a percentage of the list price. Zero. That moment arrives when their qualifying out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs crosses $2,100…
A restaurant owner in Chicago who runs $50,000 a month in credit card sales might pay $400 or more in interchange fees just on tips and sales tax. Illinois passed a law to eliminate those charges. In 29 days, the federal government will undo that protection. On June 30, 2026, an interim final rule from…
Jerome Powell is not leaving the Federal Reserve. He is stepping down as chair, but he intends to keep his seat on the Board of Governors until his term expires on January 31, 2028, according to his official Fed biography. That makes him the first outgoing chair to remain on the board since Marriner S….
Running a childcare center for employees has never been cheap. In 2026, staffing, licensing, and facility costs in major metro areas can easily exceed $1 million a year for a single site. Until last summer, the federal tax code offered employers a credit that topped out at $150,000, a ceiling that had not moved since…
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 201,000 complaints from Americans aged 60 and older in 2025, and the financial damage those complaints describe is difficult to absorb: $7.7 billion lost to internet crime, a 59% increase over the prior year, according to the bureau’s annual report released earlier this year. Investment fraud…
A full-time server at a busy steakhouse pulling in $800 a week in tips just got a reason to pay closer attention to her tax return. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000 in tip income from their federal income taxes…
A married couple in suburban Ohio, both 62, with $600,000 sitting in traditional IRAs and a comfortable but not extravagant retirement income, faces a question that will quietly shape their finances for the next three decades: should they pay tax on those IRA dollars now, at a rate they know, or wait and hope that…
Retirement Shield
Free retirement updates
Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The free Retirement Shield newsletter breaks down what changed and what to do.